The New York Times, citing classified intelligence documents and unnamed officials, reports that terrorist operatives have been making efforts to buy large quantities of castor beans – which contain the toxic ricin protein – and shift them to a remote tribal area controlled by insurgents for processing.

Ricin is so poisonous that inhalation of a few minute grains is enough to kill an adult. It was used in deadly incidents including the 1978 assassination in London of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov and, in 2002, was the subject of a bioterrorism scare in the UK capital following a police raid on a facility said to be plotting its manufacture.

US officials are reported to have told Mr Obama that an attack is not imminent and that the terrorist arm has yet to formulate a means for dispersing it as a weapon.

They believe that the ultimate goal is to find an effective means of packing the white powder around explosives and detonating the devices in packed public areas such as shopping malls and airports, the New York Times revealed.

The attorney for a Florida Muslim cleric accused of supporting terrorists wants to learn the identity of a key FBI informant in the case.

Evidence shows the informant recorded numerous conversations with the cleric, 76-year-old Hafiz Khan. Khan’s attorney says in court papers that learning the informant’s identity is critical in preparing his defense. The informant helped drive Khan to appointments and assisted him in dealing with government programs such as Medicare.

The FBI recordings form the backbone of the U.S. case against Khan and his two sons. They are each charged with four terrorism support-related crimes and have pleaded not guilty. The charges each carry potential 15-year sentences. Three others are still at large in Pakistan

Prosecutors say they funneled at least $50,000 to the Pakistani Taliban terror group.

The devices have been the insurgents’ preferred weapon for several years, but their use rose 14 per cent year-on-year, in the second quarter of 2011.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) caused the majority of Nato casualties in 2010 and their indiscriminate use has been blamed by the United Nations for contributing to record civilian casualties.

From April to June, 3,845 exploded or were found, according to the Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organisation (JIEDDO). Coaliton killed and wounded from the bombs rose 15 per cent yearly to 1,248 over the same period.

In June, use of roadside bombs was 25 per cent higher than average.

Most of the bombs are of homemade explosive, but attempts to block the import of ammonium nitrate fertiliser used in its manufacture have failed to stop the increase in devices.

Well, I don’t know if this thesis is right or wrong, but I have posted it nonetheless, because of the data it mentions:

Hassan’s guilt is indisputable. After being shot by an armed civilian guard the only armed personnel at the scene (thanks to Bill Clinton Military bases are “gun free zones”), Hassan was immediately taken into custody. His weapons were recovered. Eyewitness statements were taken, and then the unexpected happened. Nothing further has taken place.

The White House immediately set up whatever roadblocks it could to thwart the Army’s case against Hassan. By December 2009 the ranking Republican member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-MI, had to publicly call Obama out to demand he quit stalling and release the necessary official report on the case so the prosecution could begin. That was 19 long months ago.

Last week Hassan’s civilian lawyer, John Galligan, who has since been fired by the murdering punk, also complained he was being denied access to a number of pertinent documents which could easily be delivered, but just as easily be withheld.

Information has surfaced that Intelligence agencies knew this Islamist terrorist Hasan was communicating with another terrorist Anwar al-Aulaqi, who fled our shores to run a jihadist web site in Yeman. This begs the question: So what?

If Hassan and al-Aulaqi are connected that fact can be introduced during this punk’s trial. Holding up a final White House report for 19 months with no end of this delay in sight, to investigate this “connection” is only an excuse to slow this case down. Things like this are nothing new for this Chicago thug.

We’ve seen this kind of subversion of justice to help Obama before. Remember Tony Rezko? Remember he was supposed to hand Obama up when he was finally sentenced? Not surprisingly Rezko has not been sentenced for his June 4, 2008, conviction of 16 federal crimes. That’s more than three years. Moreover, in last January his sentencing was postponed indefinitely.

Elliot Abrams, a deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs under President Bush, noted that Muslim Brotherhood positions on women, on freedom of religion and on religious tests for candidacy to public office are all “an anathema” to the USA. He went on to explain that there is a great likelihood that those in the Muslim Brotherhood who preach the need for the supremacy of Shari’a law in Arab states will prevail. Nonetheless, he agrees with the President that formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood open the doors to American influence, and that influence may moderate the Brotherhood’s extremist Islamists positions. In addition he expressed the belief that there are divisions in the Brotherhood which could be exploited and deepened by meetings with American representatives.

Abrams’ assessment is very reminiscent of Israel’s western allies believing that political responsibility would moderate Arafat after Oslo in 1993; or that Hamas would be forced to self-moderate once it was saddled with the administration of the Gaza Strip after its bloody coup. Neither belief was founded in reality.

It is important to recall that the Muslim Brotherhood, since its inception more than 80 years ago, has been consistent in its ideology: the imposition of Shari’a law, by violence, on the entire world. Repression by Arab governments has never moderated it. Its core motivations arise from the jihadist Islamist belief in the obligation incumbent upon all Muslims to make Islam the only, or at least dominant, religion in the world. It is the oldest and among the best organized and wide-spread Islamic extremist terrorist organizations in the world. Its program for a “cultural invasion” of western countries, outlining a phased plan for infiltrating western societies and governments until it has the power to escalate its activities into political or violent confrontation, has been public for more than 20 years. Hamas, a self-proclaimed genocidal terrorist organization whose charter establishes its goal of destroying Israel, is a franchise of the Muslim Brotherhood. Both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood have expressed the desire to destroy the United States and make Islam the only, or the dominant, religion in the world. Why would a few western carrots or sticks make it change its core beliefs?

It seems likely that whatever his intentions, Obama’s contacts with the Brotherhood will strengthen it politically and increase its chances of becoming one of the dominant, if not the dominant, political force in Egypt. Being able to boast of Obama’s implicit recognition of the Brotherhood’s importance, the Brotherhood will now have an easier time gaining recruits, soliciting funds, and engaging with other major powers in Europe and elsewhere.

In what can rightly be described as a seminal step in relations between the Muslim world and the Western world, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the leading nations of the Western world led by the United States and the European Union agreed Saturday to take concrete steps to combat intolerance, negative stereotyping and discrimination, incitement to violence, and violence against persons based on religion or belief.

The high-level meeting was held at the historic Yildiz Palace in Istanbul. It was attended by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Cathrine Ashton along with foreign ministers and officials from France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Poland, Romania, Denmark, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Senegal, Sudan, the Vatican, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Arab League and African Union. The meeting was co-chaired by OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“It was during my address to the 15th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva that I outlined a new approach toward evolving a consensus against incitement to violence and intolerance on religious grounds that could endanger peaceful coexistence and must be viewed as a direct contrast to the very notion of a globalized world,” said Ihsanoglu. “I am glad that the eight points in the proposed approach found resonance with all the negotiating partners. They formed the basis of the consensus reflected in Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18. The importance of the consensual adoption of this resolution should be duly recognized.”

The U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had announced the intention of the U.S. State Department to organize a coordination meeting during her participation in the meeting which she co-chaired with the OIC Secretary General, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in Istanbul on 15 July 2011. The meeting issued a joint statement emphasizing the dire need for the implementation of resolution 16/18.

The US is actually supporting the implementation of this resolution that wants to prevent criticism of Islam.

Iran has been facilitating the movement of al-Qaeda funds and personnel to Pakistan and Afghanistan from the surrounding region under a deal with the terrorist organization, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday (see GSN, May 14, 2010).

The department said it was blacklisting six individuals, among them a “prominent Iran-based al-Qaeda facilitator” named Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, the New York Times reported. Citizens of the United States cannot do business with the sanctioned individuals, and U.S. officials said the targets would be unable to access any financial holdings within this country. Government sources said they realized, though, that such holdings do not exist in significant quantities.
“This network serves as the core pipeline through which al-Qaeda moves money, facilitators and operatives from across the Middle East to South Asia, including to Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, a key al-Qaeda leader based in Pakistan,” the department said in a press release.
Rahman is thought to have recently assumed the terrorist organization’s second-highest post, immediately under Osama bin Laden‘s successor Ayman al-Zawahiri (see related GSN story, today). Rahman was another target of the new penalties.
“By exposing Iran’s secret deal with al-Qaeda allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory, we are illuminating yet another aspect of Iran’s unmatched support for terrorism,” Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen said in released remarks.
The Treasury Department move was intended to shed light on “a key funding facilitation network for Al Qaeda and a key aspect for Iranian support for international terrorism,” a high-level Obama administration official told journalists by telephone.